Why Powersaves Is Bad
by Venusaurite
Summary: You can't change your past, but you can change your future.


My eyes were still blurry with egg fluids when I first saw my trainer. She was tall, with dark brown hair and a hooked nose, like the pokémon she sent out next. It was a Talonflame. I remember that Talonflame's name: Egg Warmer. The trainer commanded Egg Warmer to fly us to someplace, and I remember seeing the trainer's bag, stuffed with four other eggs. I was the first of the litter. My brother hatched almost as soon as we got to Kiloude City, and the trainer smiled at the two of us, "Hi, my name is Sol!"

Sol looked nice enough, and then our brother hatched. He was different, I could tell. He acted more confident, more _adamant _than both me and my other brother put together. Sol could tell too, and as soon as she saw him she cast him aside, sent him to another trainer in return for a simple Caterpie. The Caterpie she released into the wild.

Then she thrust us in front of a young man with purple hair. The man called himself The Judge. He poked and prodded my brother and I, and then told Sol the results: My brother was flawed. He was a 4IV Bulbasaur, and I was 6IV. I was too young to understand what that meant. My brother was sent to another trainer in exchange for a Charmander that Sol put in her PC box. She also put my unhatched siblings in the PC, where I think they still are, waiting. Then she boarded Egg Warmer again and told her to fly to Camphrier Town. I was out of my pokéball so Egg Warmer told me about myself.

Egg Warmer said I was a female Bulbasaur, which is rare enough, and that I was gifted in everything. That's what 6IV meant. My mother's name was Breed Slave 718 and my father's name was unpronounceable. That's because he was a ditto from a far away region called Japan. Egg Warmer said Sol was making them breed over and over again, until they made a perfect Bulbasaur. I was the perfect Bulbasaur so my mom could finally stop making eggs. I felt pretty proud.

When we landed in Camphrier Town, Sol took me to another man. This one told me that my name was good, but he could change it. Sol told me that my new name was Princess. The man applauded Sol for choosing such an elegant, exquisite, glorious, lovely name, but nobody asked me how I felt.

Egg Warmer made a face when I told her about my new name. She said her name used to be Flamo and she was on a journey with Sol from the very beginning, but when Sol beat the Elite Four and became the new champion, Sol became cruel. She suddenly started caring about the nature and IVs of pokémon. She renamed her entire team things like "HM Slave" and "Syncro Nature" and "Egg Warmer". Sol finished talking to the man and came back to us.

"Princess," she started, "I need to put you through Powersaves. All you need to do is sit back and relax, just let me do the coding."

She held up my pokéball and put me inside, and then stuck me inside the PC. I saw thousands of Bulbasaur, "imperfect" Bulbasaur that my mother had created and Sol had discarded. The world went fuzzy as I stared at all my brothers and sisters, wondering how a person could be so cruel as to breed all these Bulbasaur and only keep one "perfect" one.

When Sol came back, I was different. Well, I didn't feel different, but I sure looked different. I was _sparkly. _Literally. Sparkly. When Sol released me from my box, Egg Warmer told me I was shiny. Sol had apparently disassembled my DNA and reassembled it so I could be this way.

Then Sol flew us to a place called Victory Road where she put me under intense training. Egg Warmer did the actual battling, I just watched, but I knew I was growing in level. I was level 16 when my bulb popped open and turned into a flowerbud, and I remember freaking out, I had evolved! Sol did absolutely nothing, kept making Egg Warmer battle.

I evolved into a Venusaur shortly after that, but I didn't celebrate. Sol wouldn't care. Then she made me tackle a training bag, over and over again, until I was bruised and tired and I actually felt something drain out of me, and Egg Warmer told me that Sol had erased all my EVs. I was confused and tired and all I wanted was a nap, but Sol slapped a Power Lens on me and made me battle, battle, over and over again, until what energy I still had was gone. Sol then took off the Lens and gave me a heavy weight called the Power Weight on me, made me battle with it on. When I collapsed, Sol hit me. She actually hit me. I was scared of her, and she told me to get back up, raising her hand again as if to smack me, so I did. I fought until Sol told me that was enough. She wiped her forehead and said, "That was a lot of work! I'm calling quits, I'm going to continue tomorrow."

She didn't know how I felt, bruised and battered and fully exhausted. I couldn't bring myself to tell her though. She might hit me again. Sol went to the Pokémon League and we had a night's rest. Notice I didn't say good night's rest, because it wasn't good. I was young and scared, too small for my big body. My moves were all too powerful for a baby pokémon to use. I stayed up for hours thinking about what would happen to my mother, to my family who I hardly knew.

The next day, Sol took away the heavy weight and gave me a belt. We only went through a battle or so before Sol stopped, again calling it quits. She said I was perfect now. Sol took off the belt and took us to a shop in Lumiose City, where she said they would give me a Mega Stone. I was fitted with a Venusaurite, and Sol took me to a place called the Battle Spot. I was put in her team, all maybe my same age, which was two days old. I was the last member, and Sol called me her late-game staller. She had another staller on the team, a shiny Sableye named Golden Girl. Golden Girl was even younger than me. She said she was about a day old when she got finished with training and was put in the PC, so she was still one day old. Everyone was shiny and fully trained.

Sol made us battle. Everyone on the team did pretty well, only Golden Girl fainted and Sol won the battle. I was never used.

When we returned from the Battle Spot, Sol started yelling at Golden Girl. She complained that Golden Girl was weak. She claimed Golden Girl was worthless. She hit Golden Girl multiple times before calming her anger and sending Golden Girl into Wonder Trade. I haven't seen her since.

Golden Girl got replaced while I waited in the PC, never aging. I was three days old and thought I would be three days old forever. Finally another Sableye came into the PC, a baby, about a day old, named Goldy. He was identical to Golden Girl except he was normal-colored, purple. Soon enough he was shiny like the rest of us.

Sol took the entire team out and headed into the Battle Spot again. We had an easy win against a boy with a team of Panpour. Sol congratulated us and fed us all poképuffs, and then we had another battle.

This one was harder, against a guy with an Ambipom that refused to faint. It knocked out Sol's Talonflame named Ruby and Sol's Greninja (Ninja) before I was sent in.

Sol ordered me to Mega Evolve, and I remembered Egg Warmer saying that a pokémon and trainer needed a special bond to Mega Evolve. I looked back at Sol, didn't she know that I didn't have any sort of bond with her?

Sol's hand clenched into a fist and she took a small step towards me, small, so the trainer wouldn't notice, but I did. I was scared. I Mega Evolved out of fear.

I did everything Sol told me to. I used Sunny Day. Solarbeam and the Ambipom was down.

The trainer sent out a Ferrothorn and Sol switched me back into my pokéball, sending out Goldy to take care of the Ferrothorn.

Half of the team was in a faint when we came back out of the battle spot: Ruby, Ninja, and Aerial, her Togekiss. They were lectured, beaten, and Wonder Traded. Sol hit me too for not Mega Evolving fast enough.

Soon after she replaced all three, we went back into the Battle Spot. Her new Talonflame, Red, was the lead, but after the opponent sent out an Onix, she took Red out of the battle and sent me out.

When I came out of the pokéball, sharp rocks dug into my skin but I was still fine, so Sol commanded me to Mega Evolve.

I did it without questioning this time, knowing Sol would hit me if I took less than a second to evolve. Timing was everything.

Sunny Day. Solarbeam. Solarbeam. The other girl's team was mostly starting pokémon. Her best pokémon appeared to be a Mega Charizard X, who Sol switched me out when she saw him. I was tired and hungry, but as soon as her Gyrados, Elevate, finished off the Charizard, she sent me back in. The rocks still sliced at my skin but now it was thicker, stronger.

The other girl's last pokémon was a Skarmory. I knew it would be a stupid move to make me go up against it, but Sol made me do it anyways. She had nobody better on the team.

Toxic. That was Sol's first command. The Skarmory sat there I shot purple goo at it. The attack barely hit, I was so tired, but it did, the poison clipping the edge of Skarmory's wing. It did nothing to it. Of course. Skarmory are steel type. The Skarmory used Steel Wing, and I felt myself falling, falling to my knees, then to the floor, and then I sank through the ground into icy black.

I woke up to pain, pain, pain, and Sol was standing there. I tried to tell her that it wasn't my fault, it wasn't mine, but my tongue was lead and it wouldn't move and Sol hit me, over and over, until my head was jolting and dizzy and my body was battered and sore and I wanted to move but I couldn't. Sol yelled at me but I couldn't hear her because of a ringing in my ears, and then she returned me to my pokéball, took my Venusaurite, and sent me into Wonder Trade.

Yellow, like the flower on my back. Then blue like my brother, the one who was sent away. And then it was all black and all I could see was a new trainer grinning up at me.

This one was nicer. He actually appreciated me being a shiny. He fed me poképuffs and played games with me. But I could never actually like humans, because of all that humans had done to me. When he gave me his Venusaurite and tried making me Mega Evolve, I wouldn't because he was a human. Humans were evil to me and had ruined my life. And I couldn't do anything for a human because they had done nothing for me.

The boy was disappointed and sent me back into Wonder Trade. I don't know what I was traded for. But when I saw my new trainer I was disappointed. He was young and inexperienced, said he started his journey yesterday. I was overleveled, a level 60 while his team was level 7. I wouldn't listen to anything he said, knowing that he couldn't command me right. The boy was angry at me and kicked me in the ribs. I retaliated by shooting a Solarbeam at him. The boy dropped to the ground and never got back up. His mother put me in Wonder Trade, weeping and cursing at me.

The next person didn't know why my flower was yellow instead of pink and sent me back into Wonder Trade, hoping for a "normal" Venusaur.

The next girl was excited. She told me her name, but I didn't listen to it. I didn't care. She was a human, therefore evil, and she would hurt me. When she tried battling with me against a Foongus, she raised her hand before she called out the name of my move. I didn't pay attention to what it was. I thought she was going to hit me, and realized I would have to hit her before she hit me. I turned around and used my Sludge Bomb attack. The girl died instantly.

When someone found her body, I was still planning my escape. They picked up my pokéball and returned me into it. I was bored beyond imagining for the next few weeks. I was sent around the Kalos region, people were trying to find the girl's family to give me to. When they finally did locate the girl's dad, I was becoming famous as "The Murdersaur". The dad sent me to Wonder Trade.

The trainer I was sent to was a boy. He was short, stocky, and had a high-pitched voice. The boy used me on his competitive team, and when I first went into Battle Spot with his team, I recognized the opponent. Sol was on the other side of the battlefield, eyes narrowed at me and my trainer.

I fought hard. My new trainer was good. He sent me in right after Sol sent out her new Venusaur. I wanted to win, to show Sol I was worth it. The trainer commanded a Solarbeam on my part, right after the Venusaur (Nicknamed Sparklez) used Sunny Day. It was an instant KO.

Sol's next pokémon was Red, and he easily knocked me out with a Brave Bird. I woke up to my trainer's face, looming in front of my own, and he hit me. He was like Sol. I charged up a Solarbeam but he returned me to my pokéball before I could do any damage.

The yellow of Wonder Trade was becoming my home.

The trainer I was sent to was a girl. She was Japanese. I didn't understand her pointless gibberish, but I understood her excitement when she saw my yellow flower. She made a high-pitched squealing noise, like a dying Spoink, when she saw me. She made the same noise when the put me in front of the IV man and he told her I was perfect.

The girl tried to feed me a poképuff and I nearly bit her hand off. I didn't want human food. It was probably poisonous. The girl was undaunted though, and she started petting me, petting me. It was human contact. At first I shied away from her hand, but she chased me until I got tired, laughing, she was laughing. She thought it was a game. I finally let her touch me, scared that she would hit me again, ready to kill her, but she didn't hit me. Or kick me. Or hurt me. She just petted me. When she touched my belly, it felt good, but I didn't let her know that. She couldn't know my weaknesses.

At the end of the day, the girl pointed to herself, "Ayo."

Ayo gave me a poképuff but I didn't eat it. She was trying to get under my skin, to get close to me just like Sol did, and then she would send me back into Wonder Trade. After she left the poképuff sat cold and uneaten on the ground for hours before a wandering pidgey plucked it up and ate it.

I learned that Ayo was experienced. She had beaten the Champion countless times but now was taking a break from battling to get closer to her pokémon. Most of her team couldn't talk to me. They spoke the same gobbledeygook that Ayo did. There was one pokémon I could speak to, a Espurr named Chessa. Chessa spoke with a funny accent, said her trainer was from Australia. I grew to like Chessa. She would ride on my back and tell me stories about her, and I would tell her about me. She had a pretty decent life before she was caught and put on Wonder Trade. She said she was just living on Route 6 before her trainer caught her, made her breed with a Ditto a couple of times, and then sent her away on Wonder Trade.

Ayo trained us all fairly. She first battled with her Avalugg for a couple turns, then switched out to me for a few more turns, then to her Shiftry, and then to Chessa. Those were the pokémon she was training. The other two were just there to fly us and surf us to the next battles, to cut down all trees and move away any rocks.

Ayo was the first person to call me a _yūjin. _I didn't know what that meant. Her Avalugg said four words to me, "You friend of Ayo."

_Yūjin _means friend in Japanese. I was not a Venusaur, or a Princess, or just simply a pokémon. To Ayo, I was actually her friend.

Ayo didn't say, "Princess, use Toxic!" when we battled. She called me Yūjin. I liked that name. It had a nice ring to it.

I learned the Japanese names of my moves. When Ayo wanted me to use Giga Drain, she yelled, "Gigadorein!"

When she commanded a Yadoriginotane, I knew to use Leech Seed. She told me to use Yūdokuna, I used Toxic. And Hedorobakudan meant Sludge Bomb.

Ayo eventually bought me a Venusaurite. I was used to Mega Evolving by now, and I had a real bond with Ayo. She was nice. She gave me poképuffs and petted me and I was her friend, not her slave. When she told me to Mega Evolve, I did it without thinking.

We never went to Battle Spot with Ayo. She didn't want us there. When I was level 100 and fully trained, Ayo put me in her PC. I was about a year old.

Ayo still uses me sometimes, but never for long. When she battles her friends, she takes me out. I like seeing the look on their faces when I get sent out, a shiny Mega Venusaur. But then after the battle she puts me back in her box. I like being in the PC, anyways. We get to talk, Chessa and I, and I meet her new pokémon, her english pokémon, like her level 100 Ninetales. He arrived from Wonder Trade last Wednesday. Chessa evolved a while ago, into a gorgeous Meowstic with fluffy fur. We're best friends still.

Yesterday Ayo took a few pokémon to Wonder Trade. She said they weren't compatible with her. I remember her sending off her Froakies, a Fenniken, and five Noibat, wishing them luck. For one of the noibat came a scared-looking Ivysaur. He spoke English. Ayo checked his IVs- he had four of them. I thought about my brother. No, it couldn't be. The Ivysaur was too scared, too skinny to be my brother. Ayo checked the OT. It said Sol had been the Ivysaur's original trainer.

I didn't know whether to laugh, cry, or scream. The Ivysaur looked at me and just said one word, "Bulbasaur?"

I remembered that he had never known me as Princess, because he was sent away before I was nicknamed.

"My name isn't Bulbasaur anymore," I said, "Some people think it's Princess, but my name isn't that either,"

I paused while Ivysaur wrapped long vines around me in a tight hug.

"My name is Yūjin."


End file.
